false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174973119m/464260.jpg 464260 13 It's shocking how little has changed between the races in this country since 1963, when James Baldwin published this coolly impassioned plea to "end the racial nightmare." <I>The Fire Next Time</I>--even the title is beautiful, resonant, and incendiary. "Do I really <I>want</I> to be integrated into a burning house?" Baldwin demands, flicking aside the central race issue of his day and calling instead for full and shared acceptance of the fact that America is and always has been a multiracial society. Without this acceptance, he argues, the nation dooms itself to "sterility and decay" and to eventual destruction at the hands of the oppressed: "The Negroes of this country may never be able to rise to power, but they are very well placed indeed to precipitate chaos and ring down the curtain on the American dream."<p> Baldwin's seething insights and directives, so disturbing to the white liberals and black moderates of his day, have become the starting point for discussions of American race relations: that debasement and oppression of one people by another is "a recipe for murder"; that "color is not a human or a personal reality; it is a political reality"; that whites can only truly liberate themselves when they liberate blacks, indeed when they "become black" symbolically and spiritually; that blacks and whites "deeply need each other here" in order for America to realize its identity as a nation. <p> Yet despite its edgy tone and the strong undercurrent of violence, <I>The Fire Next Time</I> is ultimately a hopeful and healing essay. Baldwin ranges far in these hundred pages--from a memoir of his abortive teenage religious awakening in Harlem (an interesting commentary on his first novel <I>Go Tell It on the Mountain</I>) to a disturbing encounter with Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad. But what binds it all together is the eloquence, intimacy, and controlled urgency of the voice. Baldwin clearly paid in sweat and shame for every word in this text. What's incredible is that he managed to keep his cool. <I>--David Laskin</I> 1129041 1963 The Fire Next Time total:1597|5:774|4:564|3:229|2:26|1:4| 1597 6869 2114 140 5 2 true false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Nov 02 19:30:21 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 02 20:03:58 -0800 2008 2
Baldwin recounts his childhood, growing up in Harlem, including reflections on his experiences in th...more...]]> 5 2 false false Mon Jan 28 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 27 17:31:20 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 28 20:22:16 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 11 19:38:54 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 11 19:44:28 -0700 2009
James Baldwin writes personal, provocative prose in The Fire Next Time. Of the two essays herein, the first “My Dungeon Shook” is a reflection about the psychological trip his father endured. Baldwin expresses anguish at the fact his father believed what the wh...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jul 10 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 25 10:37:36 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 25 10:58:55 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Apr 09 07:53:21 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 07 11:48:02 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 07:53:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jul 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 12 21:49:24 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 14:17:19 -0700 2009 Go Tell It on the Mountain will require a second reading, because everything else I've read by James Baldwin has been really fantastic.

The Fire Next Time is a short letter to Baldwin's nephew and a lengthy essay about racism in the United States. The latter is a pa...more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 09:28:50 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 19:55:40 -0700 2009
Though quite short, I got completely lost in Baldwin's ruminations. The Fire Next Time is a disjointed mixture of personal anecdotes about religion and broad philosophical indictments of white supremacy.

Baldwin relates a few negative ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jul 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 08 06:07:43 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 20:40:46 -0700 2009
I found the first piece “Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipatio...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Mar 05 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 15:57:15 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 05 08:50:21 -0800 2009 My dungeon Shook The second, Down At The Cross. The first letter is my favorite, its to his nephew and it demonstrates wisdom he gained from his stint as a minister in harlem. I really got into this section overall. T...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu May 07 16:11:09 -0700 2009 Thu May 07 16:16:41 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Sep 24 14:44:25 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 26 13:01:25 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Dec 27 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Sep 23 10:40:35 -0700 2008 Sat Dec 27 07:26:37 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Aug 16 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 16 20:50:22 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 16 21:02:25 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Feb 04 13:52:31 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 03 12:11:48 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 08 15:14:43 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Nov 30 20:03:04 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 01 07:05:52 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Feb 27 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 25 12:09:16 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 27 07:28:31 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Feb 04 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 10:13:16 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 08 16:00:15 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Oct 05 20:36:26 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 05 20:47:39 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Sep 27 16:25:20 -0700 2007 Mon Dec 17 17:08:43 -0800 2007 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun May 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat May 24 17:54:18 -0700 2008 Sun May 25 22:06:54 -0700 2008 “People ...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=464260